BAN: NEW ECONOMIC PARADIGM NEEDED, INCORPORATING SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL
PROGRESS New York, Apr 2 2012 2:05PM Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today
highlighted the need for an economic paradigm that incorporates social and
environmental progress in efforts to achieve sustainable development.

?Gross National Product (GDP) has long been the yardstick by which economies
and politicians have been measured. Yet it fails to take into account the
social and environmental costs of so-called progress,? Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon said in his echoed Mr. Ban?s remarks. He emphasized that ?today?s unprecedented ecological,
economic and social challenges have made the achievement of happiness and
well-being an unachievable goal for many,? adding that a new economic
paradigm that takes into account not only economic growth but environmental
protection and social development is needed.

?It is imperative that we build a new, creative guiding vision for
sustainability and our future,? Mr. Al-Nasser said. ?One that will bring a
more inclusive, equitable and balanced approach that will promote
sustainability, eradicate poverty and enhance well-being and happiness.?

In a recent interview with the UN News Centre, Bhutan?s Prime Minister,
Jigme Thinley, said that GNH is a development paradigm that has guided
Bhutan?s development for several decades and that he hoped Monday?s meeting
would result in recommendations which governments can act on.

?I hope that by 2015 the international community will have adopted a
sustainability-based economic paradigm, committed to promoting true human
well-being and happiness, and ensuring at the same time, the survival of all
species with which we share this planet,? he said.
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